This morning on my painfully slow jog to walk I saw a car get mad at a cyclist that they nearly bowled down. This is all very typical of Thorndon Quay, but it did get me thinking. The car turned sharply towards a parking space, actually turning a bit far, and only just avoided crashing …
Monthly Archive: February 2011
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/14/car-safety-and-the-economic-method/
Feb 11 2011
Commitment and the gym
Everyone I know says they want to spend more time at the gym – myself included. However, as an economist I’ve learnt to look past what people say and look at what they actually do. In essence, people really just wish that a previous version of themselves (them in the past) had gone to the …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/11/commitment-and-the-gym/
Feb 10 2011
Australian government: Ideology rules over evidence?
Now, I know we make a big deal of how Australians make more than we do. However, it doesn’t matter how well or how poorly a country is doing – when policy is made it should be on the basis of evidence and costing, not ideology per see. Redistribution and social goals are essential – …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/10/australian-government-ideology-rules-over-evidence/
Feb 08 2011
“Savings” problem doesn’t mean “investment” problem per see
One issue I have with the constant discussion on savings, current account deficits, and consumption in NZ is how people look at it – they keep thinking that we are “consuming” to much and have needed to “borrow”. That is how we’ve been told to look at it – especially with all the talk of …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/08/savings-problem-doesnt-mean-investment-problem-per-see/
Feb 08 2011
Asset sales
There has been a lot of commentary on asset sales around the place, so much so that I didn’t feel like I need to write anything. Dim Post mentioned a lot of the people against asset sales and also Geoff Simmons recently wrote against them. Furthermore, both Anti-Dismal (*, *, *, *, *) and Roger …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/08/asset-sales/
Feb 07 2011
Quote of the day: On theory and data
From Eric Crampton: I tend to be pretty skeptical of results that aren’t grounded in basic price theory or that aren’t confirmed by a lot of different methods, including both Ocular and Ordinary Least Squares. A single paper merely helps people to update their priors – it doesn’t provide conclusive evidence of a result. Often …
Permanent link to this article: http://www.tvhe.co.nz/2011/02/07/quote-of-the-day-on-theory-and-data/
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